Glamour on a budget - Mattie Roberts

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Portion Control
September 25, 2006

We have been through this before in previous articles, but I thought it might be time to review the concept of portion control in lieu of numerous e-mails I'm getting. One frequent question is from folks who are following a certain diet to the letter, and still can't seem to lose weight. One reader is on Atkins and has gained a couple of pounds while on the diet. Another guy is losing at a painfully slow rate on a strenuously low-fat diet. My theory on most of these diet failures is that y'all aren't monitoring your portions.

Just because you have shunned all carbs -- never a good idea anyway -- and eat exclusively protein and fat does not mean you'll lose weight if you are consuming 3000 calories a day of meat, cheese and eggs. Calories still count!

And to our Jack Sprat, a huge mixing bowl of pasta with fat free tomato sauce is not on any good diet plan.

You also can't scarf down a baguette and half a jar of jelly for breakfast and think that just because you skipped the fat you will skip the calories.

It's all about portion control and balance. The only food you can safely eliminate from any diet is sugar...it is utterly worthless. You need fat, carbohydrates and protein in roughly equal measures. And you must monitor your portions!

A cup of cooked pasta has about 200 calories. Most restaurant servings have at least three cups -- and that's before the saucy sauce is added!

It's time to get out your scales and measuring cups and be really scientific about how you portion out your food. It's way too easy to pour two or more cups of cereal into the bowl taking a healthy breakfast at the recommended 250 calories soaring to 600 calories or more.

The Mayo Clinic has this terrific website with photos of what various portions should look like. And dig up your calorie counts book or go here to get the skinny on exactly how many calories are in that 5 oz. glass of Merlot....uh, that would be 100.